Metagenomic and Metabolomic Reconstitution of Gut Microbiota After Broad Spectrum Antibiotic Therapy

In the United States, healthcare providers prescribe over 270 million antibiotic prescriptions each year. While antibiotics have transformed medicine and methods of treating life-threatening bacterial infection, broad spectrum antibiotics also induce disruption of resident gut microbial communities by altering both composition and function. This disruption of microbial community dynamics has been demonstrated at the taxonomic level, yet the extent of functional disruptions to microbial metabolic output and host cells remains understudied in humans. This study explores the impact of a broad spectrum antibiotic cocktail on microbial communities throughout the gastrointestinal tract, and the impact of a defined, multi-strain consortia of probiotic organisms following antibiotic exposure.